Thai PM faces legal showdown in power abuse case

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, center, arrives at the Constitutional Court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Yingluck defended herself Tuesday against abuse of power allegations in a crucial court case that is one of several legal challenges which could remove her from office. She is accused of abusing her authority by transferring her National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The Associated Press

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, center, arrives at the Constitutional Court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Yingluck defended herself Tuesday against abuse of power allegations in a crucial court case that is one of several legal challenges which could remove her from office. She is accused of abusing her authority by transferring her National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's prime minister faces a legal showdown Wednesday as the country's highest court is expected to rule against her in a case that could toss her out of office and plunge the country deeper into political turmoil.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra stands accused in Constitutional Court of abusing her authority by transferring a senior civil servant in 2011 to another position, allegedly for the benefit of herself or her Pheu Thai Party.

The court, historically unsympathetic to her government, could also rule her Cabinet liable as well, and in a worst-case scenario force them all out of office, leaving a power vacuum that the government's opponents hope to fill with their own loyalists.

A ruling against Yingluck would be a victory for her opponents, representing the urban elite and those in the south, who for the past six months have been engaged in vociferous and sometime violent street protests demanding she step down to make way for an interim unelected leader.

But it would do little to resolve Thailand's political crisis as it leaves the country in limbo — and primed for more violence. Since November, 20 have been killed and hundreds injured.

A ruling against her casts doubt on whether new elections planned for July will take place, which would anger Yingluck's mostly rural supporters who have called for a major rally Saturday in Bangkok.

It also remains far from clear whether her opponents will be able to achieve other key demands, including creating a reform council overseen by a leader of their choice that will carry out various steps to rid the country of corruption and what they claim is money politics, including alleged vote-buying.

The Yingluck government's caretaker status — she dissolved Parliament late last year to call early elections, which were disrupted by protesters and then invalidated — complicates an unprecedented situation already unclear under law.

"I would like to deny all allegations I am accused of," Yingluck testified Tuesday. "As the prime minister, I am entitled to carry out responsibilities I have toward the people ... and for the utmost benefit of the general public."

The campaign against Yingluck has been the latest chapter in Thailand's political upheaval that began when her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by a 2006 military coup after protests accusing him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Since then, Thaksin's supporters and opponents have engaged in a power struggle that has on occasion turned bloody.

Thaksin's supporters say the Thai establishment opposes him because their position of privilege has been threatened by his electoral popularity, cemented by populist programs that benefited the less well-off in the vote-strong countryside.

Thailand's courts, like its military, are seen as bastions of anti-Thaksin conservatism, and have a record of hostile rulings toward the Shinawatra political machine, which is fueled by a fortune Thaksin made in the telecommunications sector. Thaksin's opponents, including those who have rioted and attacked police, destroyed public property and occupied government offices, have usually been treated leniently by the courts.